What: "The World on the Brink from Iraq to Iran: Lessons from the Cold War on how a Peace Movement can Trump Hegemony"

Who: Jan Kavan, a longtime advocate of democracy and human rights, served as president of the United Nations General Assembly from 2002 to 2003 at the time the Bush Administration tried unsuccessfully to win U.N. support for the invasion of Iraq.

Kavan's activism dates back to the 1960s when he was a student political leader in Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring Movement in 1968. When the movement was crushed by the Soviet occupation, Kavan went into exile in Great Britain in 1969. During his 20 years of political exile, Kavan ran the Palach Press Agency that monitored events in Czechoslovakia and served as the Western press agency for the of the Czech opposition movements, including Chapter 77, led by Vaclav Havel. Kavan returned to Czechoslovakia in 1989, joining the political movement fighting for democracy during the so-called Velvet Revolution. He served as the Czech Republic's Deputy Prime Minister for Foreign and Security Policy from 1999 to 2002, as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1998 to 2002 and as a member of the Czech Senate until 2006.